A group of Aquascape Foundation volunteers traveled to the Kuve Village in Ghana, Africa, on Jan. 12 to install a rainwater harvesting system. The group installed Aquascape’s RainXchange System and Genieye’s Eye-Nizer water purification system to provide clean drinking water for the village’s school children. The system also gives residents the ability to prepare one hot meal a day.
The Kuve Village has no electricity, so the group installed a solar panel on the roof to power the ionization manifold part of the system. The rainwater harvesting system can capture and filter more than 100,000 gallons of water per year, giving more than 400 children drinking water during the year.
Aquascape Foundation chose the village school after contacting the I.N. Network in Zeeland, Michigan. The Network’s mission is to connect partners in community development.
How the rainwater system works:
Rainwater runs off the school’s roof and is stored in a sub-surface 8,000-gallon reservoir. Water then enters the first chamber of the basin, which acts as a sediment trap to remove particulate matter. It then passes through the ionization manifold via a solar-powered pump. The Genieye Eye-Nizer adds trace amounts of copper and silver ions to the water to kill bacteria and waterborne pathogens. The sterilized water flows into the second chamber of the basin where it is stored and can be pumped out using a hand pump.
